RG3 has potential to be great but Shanny pushed him too hard, especially coming back from his knee rebuild. The thing is Shanny could have won with Cousins. He could have started Cousins, won the NFCE and then traded Cousins for at least a #1 pick and then put RG3 back in the line up for next season.

but no, hell no. Shanny ego destroys Shanny coach, again.

I dunno if it is as much about Shanny pushing RG3 hard, as much as RG3 wanting to be the starter even if he wasn't 100%. Shanahan could have taken a hard line with him, but probably alienates his top player further.

Washington also has the worst passing defense in the NFL, so not sure they'd win the division, even as weak as it is.

RG3 has potential to be great but Shanny pushed him too hard, especially coming back from his knee rebuild. The thing is Shanny could have won with Cousins. He could have started Cousins, won the NFCE and then traded Cousins for at least a #1 pick and then put RG3 back in the line up for next season.

but no, hell no. Shanny ego destroys Shanny coach, again.

Shanahan wasn't the one that had Adidas promoting the 1st game return. Or whining that coaches wouldn't let him on the field during preseason. If Shanahan had started Cousins then he would have lost Griffin, Dan Synder and the fan base(and their dollars).

I still maintain when RG3 is at the top of his game, the skins are real hard to beat even if they lack the personnel.

Last year, RG3 being himself, guys overachieving for 7 games and an easier schedule got them to 10-6.

This year, RG3 wasn't ready (his fault for coming back early, but he's an athlete) and so Shanahan is getting burned because well RG3 is not capable of dominating games this season...

At the end of the day, he will probably recover for next season but he just doesn't get along with shanahan so change is needed.

RG3 evaluation does not excuse shanny for consistently fielding teams with pathetic special teams, and mediocre defenses.
shanny is an incompetent head coach, marginal OC depending on the talent of his QB.

Shanahan wasn't the one that had Adidas promoting the 1st game return. Or whining that coaches wouldn't let him on the field during preseason. If Shanahan had started Cousins then he would have lost Griffin, Dan Synder and the fan base(and their dollars).

if the team is winning no one would care, right? Fact is that RG3 is the franchise and there's simply no getting around that. Shanny should have let RG3 heal up 100% and not rush a comeback. He didn't have the offseason anyway. RG3 is the long term QB but Cousins could have been the savior, and he might very well have brought the skins a first or at the very least second round pick to recoup some of the picks traded for the franchise QB.

1. RGIII has had a sophomore slump more than the rest of last years great rookie class because while the league got to gameplan that offense, he could not take reps and get better physically in the offseason. RGIII did not have an offseason to get better with the WR's, run custom routes, get adjustments down, and work on his craft physically. And, it has shown in his poor technique and decision making this season.

He is just now getting how to read defenses that are no longer scared of missing him on a zone read play and playing traditional coverages against him. He has struggled to execute and missed plays he made last year as well. Overall, he has not gotten better while teams have learned how to force him into doing things that are not his strengths and he could not improve in the offseason. The result is he has simply regressed in his on field performances.

2. More teams are playing the Zone read scheme than ever before, and teams are getting more comfortable playing against it. WAS is not getting the big "Sportscenter type hype" plays they did last year to beat teams. They need to be able to make sustained drives and their OL has been flat out atrocious in pass protection this year.

3. The defense is actually pretty talented, but pretty young on the back end. Safety is also an issue for WAS like it has been in DEN and their CB play has been some of the worst I have ever seen this season. This is Raheem Morris, who used to be TB's DB's and HC not Slowik, who has not brought them along at all and they blow coverages as much as any team in the NFL this year.

4. Jim Haslet has not done a very good job as DC under Shanahan. His conversion of the defense from 4-3 to 3-4 has not worked and required them to Blitz entirely too much to put pressure on the running game and the passing game. Combine that with a secondary that blows coverages and you get a pretty poor defense that is entirely too risky at its core.

5. WAS has the lowest rated ST's unit in the NFL and they are almost 40% worse on ST's than the 31st ranked NY Giants! They have lost a bunch of games this year to ST's blunders as well as continually screwing both offense and Defense with Field position. Former DEN ST's captain Keith Burns runs this unit, and they are just about as awful as you can get. This is a hidden area where the Salary Cap restrictions kill them as they have a bunch of scrubs playing ST's as well as the specialists themselves being poor.

Combine that with the inability to sign and keep the right talent due to salary cap restrictions, and you get a 3-8 team that is wildly inconsistent.

I also think Mike needs to do less, but having Kyle run the offense has helped him be more of an overall HC. Bruce Allen and AJ Smith, formerly of the SD SuperChargers are still involved in Talent assessment with Shanahan as well so he has less total control than he did have in DEN. Snyder is not the best owner in the world to work for, but Shanahan did estrange Pat Bowlen of all people and now he has to see how the other half of the league has to deal with bad ownership. You would have thought he would have learned after Al Davis

Many of your points are decisions either Shanahan has made or was a apart of making. He's the head coach and in charge of football operations.

Let me ask you this. If you owned the Redskins, would anyone here resign Shanahan to a new contract? And for how long, because at this rate he won't be coaching RGIII.

Reports out of DC point to Shanny NOT wanting to make the trade for RGIII and basically being told to play him this year and not Cousins. He does not have the final say in DC that you all seem to think he does.

Biggest problem is RGIII lack of maturity. He was the one that forced the issue last year in the playoffs, then lets his Dad blast the coach all offseason for playing him. So if Elway was hobbled in the playoffs and trying to gut out a win (in a close game that Was was controlling) you would be fine with the backup who got no reps coming in? Really, so if Manning is struggling in the playoffs bring in Brosweiler even though the game is close? As a coach your hand is kind of forced.

Zorn left that place in a mess. Shanny has put it back together a bit, but they were always in for a tough year this year.

Reports out of DC point to Shanny NOT wanting to make the trade for RGIII and basically being told to play him this year and not Cousins. He does not have the final say in DC that you all seem to think he does.

Biggest problem is RGIII lack of maturity. He was the one that forced the issue last year in the playoffs, then lets his Dad blast the coach all offseason for playing him. So if Elway was hobbled in the playoffs and trying to gut out a win (in a close game that Was was controlling) you would be fine with the backup who got no reps coming in? Really, so if Manning is struggling in the playoffs bring in Brosweiler even though the game is close? As a coach your hand is kind of forced.

Compare apples to apples and take those Shanny glasses off. RG3 was a rookie last season...so are you really comparing Rooke RG3 to established legends as Elway and Manning? Talking about bringing in Osweiler to replace a LEGEND? Stop that nonsense.

Redskins didn't do anything after the 1st quarter in the playoff game last year. Period. You're saying yourself that Washington was "controlling" the game, so someone who actually built the team correctly would have had a viable veteran back up, not having a rookie as your starting QB and a rookie as your back up QB...that's a ****ing joke. RG3's leg was falling off...

And what is this "back up with no reps" are you talking about? Cousins played a full game and played well during the preseason last year...

I can tell... you're the type that will defend Shanny at all costs even it it's worth dumbing yourself down.

Reports out of DC point to Shanny NOT wanting to make the trade for RGIII and basically being told to play him this year and not Cousins. He does not have the final say in DC that you all seem to think he does.

Biggest problem is RGIII lack of maturity. He was the one that forced the issue last year in the playoffs, then lets his Dad blast the coach all offseason for playing him. So if Elway was hobbled in the playoffs and trying to gut out a win (in a close game that Was was controlling) you would be fine with the backup who got no reps coming in? Really, so if Manning is struggling in the playoffs bring in Brosweiler even though the game is close? As a coach your hand is kind of forced.

Zorn left that place in a mess. Shanny has put it back together a bit, but they were always in for a tough year this year.

Shanahan not wanting to draft RGIII is a complete rumor....there are no reports.

Blaming the struggles on Zorn is also an excuse that is getting more ridiculous as time goes on. Zorn coached for 2 years and had zero say in personnel. Shanahan inherited a team that was 8-8 2 years prior, it wasn't a barren cupboard. Zorn wasn't Mcdaniels....he was just a guy in over his head as HC who was given zero roster control.

A lot of the stories now since the season is over in DC is what will the defense look like when Orakpo, Dante Hall and London Fletchers are gone. The 3 best players on the defense.....that were already here when Shanny was hired. How to fix the Safety position....a position that was filled by Laron Landry who Shanahan let walk.

Washington was such a perfect fit I thought. A solid defensive core in place a good mix of young talent and veterans on that side of the ball. The offense was just broken down. All he needed to do was come in, hire someone competent to run the D and work his magic on the offense. He mucked it up, and when you run the show the way he does, you have no one else to blame.

Shanahan wasn't the one that had Adidas promoting the 1st game return. Or whining that coaches wouldn't let him on the field during preseason. If Shanahan had started Cousins then he would have lost Griffin, Dan Synder and the fan base(and their dollars).

He would of lost Griffin but Synder and the fan base would of depended on if they were winning or not. Its a tough call, one Shanny ultimately got to decide. Fans here in Redskins land think everyone sucks if they are loosing or everyone is great if they are winning. Most are Giving RG3 a pass this year blaming it on Shanny and Kyle.

They really are decent QB play away from the 2002-2008 Denver Broncos. Which appears to be Shanahan's ceiling these days.

Shanny still has it. His offense was prolific last year so there's no such thing as the game has passed him by. The real problem is he is having to coach with a 36m cap penalty which makes it hard to field a team.

Yeah, that O was very good last year. 4th in scoring, 5th in yds. But it was kind of a magical year where everything went right for them after starting 3-6.

They went 5-1 in the NFCE, all of the wins coming in their run to finish the season when they went 7-0 after starting 3-6.

I won't say "the game has passed him by", but he doesn't run a good organization. He's hit on maybe 5 good draft picks in four years, meanwhile trading away two 1st-rounders, three 2nd-rounders and a 3rd-rounder. His best trade was giving Denver Jeremy Jarmon for Jabar Gaffney.

The first thing he did was trade Jason Campbell to Oakland for a sixth, then traded two 2nds to Philly for McNabb. Then he traded a 3rd for an OT that was out of the league in a year.

And he's 24-39 at this point, with no #1 pick next year, the 31st ranked D, already given up 362 points, and 19th in the League in O scoring.

The cap penalty certainly could have hampered them, that's a lot of $$$$. If they made good acquisitions, who knows? Remember Dallas had the same cap penalty, though. And they brought it upon themselves, no other teams in the League got penalized, just those two.

For the record, the game hasn't passed Shanny by as a coach. I think the problem is RG3, and how much of a decline he has been since last year. Shanny should have just went with Cousins this season.

Well, Griffin hasn't been terribly horrible, but yeah there's some decline. Dude has 15 TD passes against 11 INT's. He has 460 yds rushing, but zero TD's. Last year he had 7 rushing TD's for the season, and 815 yds rushing.

Last year Griffin only had 20 passing TD's, so he's not far off that mark right now.

Washington was +17 last year in turnover ratio, right now they're at -2. Griffin had 12 fumbles last year, 11 this this year. I don't know how many fumbles were lost, but I think this year more have been lost than last year.